Conscious Ergonomics in Architecture: Energy,
Matter, and Form from Theory to Practice
María Araya León
1,2,3(B )
, Ricardo Guasch
2
, Alberto T. Estévez
3
,
and Javier Peña
2
1
University of Santiago of Chile (USACH), Santiago, Chile
maria.araya.l@usach.cl
2
Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering (ELISAVA), Barcelona, Spain
3
Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC), Barcelona, Spain
Abstract. Given the importance of how the built environment influences the well-
being and health of people in a positive or negative way, in addition to the need
of expanding this field of knowledge, this work teaches the model of “Conscious
Ergonomics” in Architecture, which proposes a holistic and systemic view to con-
tribute to integral well-being. Formed by the trinomial energy, matter, and form
as articulators of perceived and unperceived information. For the above, a mixed
method is developed comprising the state of scientific art and various empirical
experiences. As results, the most representative parameters of each dimension –the
built environment and the human being– are defined, which, depending on their
level of relationships, respond better to this holistic vision. It is seen as an oppor-
tunity to strengthen the formal, energetic, and biophilic aspects, the exploration
in commercial and industrial contexts, and the link with more objective studies
on the human being and its biological responses. Finally, this research seeks to
codify knowledge for new evidence-based architectural design strategies.
Keywords: Conscious ergonomics · Built environment · Health · Well-being
1 Introduction and Background
The built environment positively and/or negatively affects the physical and psychologi-
cal well-being and health of the people who inhabit it [1]. Extensive scientific evidence
supports this statement from various explanatory paradigms, such as ergonomics, psy-
chology, chemistry, physics, among others. However, while critical issues are addressed,
much negative impact of this environment on human beings continues to be found. Posi-
tive data and statistic findings should also be enhanced for application in specific projects,
such as the effects of certain materials, for example [2].
Recurrent problems may be due, on the one hand, to the lack of correlation and sys-
temic perspective between the built environment and users [3], because for environments
The original version of this chapter was inadvertently published with incorrect information. The
correction has been amended. The correction to this chapter is available at
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74608-7_105
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021, corrected publication 2021
N. L. Black et al. (Eds.): IEA 2021, LNNS 221, pp. 293–302, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74608-7_37